I confess to you that,
notwithstanding the disproportion in the dominions, I have been sensibly
affected by the thought that you would continue to reign, that I might
still regard you as my successor, sure, if the dauphin lives, of a regent
accustomed to command, capable of maintaining order in my kingdom and
stifling its cabals. If this child were to die, as his weakly complexion
gives too much reason to suppose, you would enjoy the succession to me
following the order of your birth, and I should have the consolation of
leaving to my people a virtuous king, capable of commanding them, and one
who, on succeeding me, would unite to the crown states so considerable as
Naples, Savoy, Piedmont, and Montferrat. If gratitude and affection
towards your subjects are to you pressing reasons for remaining with
them, I may say that you owe me the same sentiments; you owe them to your
own house, to your own country, before Spain. All that I can do for you
is to leave you once more the choice, the necessity for concluding peace
becoming every day more urgent."

The choice of Philip V. was made; he had already written to his
grandfather to say that he would renounce all his rights of succession
to the throne of France rather than give up the crown of Spain. This
decision was solemnly enregistered by the Cortes. The English required
that the Dukes of Berry and Orleans should, likewise make renunciation of
their rights to the crown of Spain. Negotiations began again, but war
began again at the same time as the negotiations.

The king had given Villars the command of the army of Flanders. The
marshal went to Marly to receive his last orders. "You see my plight,
marshal," said Louis XIV. "There are few examples of what is my fate--to
lose in the same week a grandson, a grandson's wife and their son, all of
very great promise and very tenderly beloved. God is punishing me; I
have well deserved it. But suspend we my griefs at my own domestic woes,
and look we to what may be done to prevent those of the kingdom. If
anything were to happen to the army you command, what would be your idea
of the course I should adopt as regards my person?" The marshal
hesitated. The king resumed: "This is what I think; you shall tell me
your opinion afterwards. I know the courtiers' line of argument; they
nearly all wish me to retire to Blois, and not wait for the enemy's army
to approach Paris, as it might do if mine were beaten. For my part,